Tech Analysis: Destiny

[Administrator]

While Killzone: Shadow Fall and Infamous: Second Son led the charge for PlayStation 4 at this year's E3, the gameplay reveal of Bungie's brand new sci-fi shooter, Destiny, was one of the main high points in Sony's press conference. This mega-budget multi-platform title aims to redefine the FPS genre through the introduction of a persistent open world, where the line between campaign and multiplayer blurs into a single, cohesive gameplay experience. Destiny has the next-gen graphical bells and whistles we expect, but it's the scale and scope of the core MMO-meets-FPS concept that truly sets it apart from the competition.
Destiny is set to arrive simultaneously on four different platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and PS4 - all developed in-house at Bungie, each with its own dedicated online infrastructure. It's a mammoth undertaking for a team used to focusing on just one title on a single format, but the game is being built on technology that is scalable, meaning that the level of detail, effects work, physics and other subsystems can easily be pared down to work on a range of hardware configurations, simplifying the conversion process. But it's PlayStation 4 that was chosen as the host platform for the title's E3 debut, giving us a glimpse of what to expect from this new and exciting universe in its next-gen iteration.
The opening few moments of the demo reveal a vast landscape that stretches for miles into the distance, packed with intricate details from grassy fields that sway in the wind to burnt-out cars and wreckage strewn across the environment. As the camera slowly pans across the scenery, the sheer sense of scale is finally revealed: towering above the player, a massive wall separates the city of Old Russia from the desolate wasteland beyond. Water splashes down from cracks in the wall, while futuristic communication towers reach up into the sky from the other side, emphasising the game's mammoth draw distance. It's classic Bungie - albeit with a next-gen lick of paint and a grittier change in tone.
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